Reviews of Books

American History in Schools and Colleges: The Report of the Committee on American History in Schools and Colleges of the American His­ torical Association, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, the National Council for the Social Studies. EDGAR B. WESLEY, di­ rector of the committee. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1944. xiv, 148 p. I1.25.)

Do Americans know their own history? For the past two years this question has been much discussed in the public press. Patriotic societies, luncheon clubs, and public-spirited organizations of many kinds have, in rising crescendo, answered it with a vigorous "No." More recently the New York Times and national weeklies have opened their columns to the discussion. The climax was reached when the results of a test of information about American history administered to several thousand recent graduates of high schools were published. This seemed to prove that the charge was true. It seemed also to prove that the blame for this deplorable situation must be laid to the schools. Such a challenge could not be ignored. It was eminently proper that the question should be examined by the national associations of scholars and teachers of American history, for these are in a real sense the offi­ cial custodians of our common responsibility in this matter. On the initiative of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, which was quickly joined by the American Historical Association and the National Council for Social Studies, a committee of fourteen, representing all sec­ tions of the country and all school levels, was appointed to make a study of the matter. With the help of the Rockefeller Foundation, this com­ mittee was enabled to carry through its work before the end of 1943. The report of its findings is contained in this litde volume of scarcely more than a hundred pages. The language of this report is extraordinarily clear, direct, and vigor­ ous. It examines all the charges and blinks at none of the facts. It scru­ tinizes the results of the tests by which the work of the schools was condemned and likewise examines the test itself. It reports also the re­ sults of a test of its own which was administered to a wide range of per­ sons from high school students to individuals listed in Who's Who. It

168 1944 WESLEY : AMERICAN HISTORY IN SCHOOLS 169 examines suggestions for improvement made in the public discussion and adds suggestions and recommendations of its own. Some of these recommendations, notably the minimum list of names and dates to be learned at the successive grade levels in which American history is taught, are certain to arouse discussion and debate. The committee makes no claims to omniscience nor even of final authority. The pun­ gent, provocative style of its report frankly invites criticism and sugges­ tions. The public will want to read and study this report. Both the public and the school authorities will find it profitable to discuss it chapter by chapter. If this is generally done, it will lead not only to the mutual understanding of the problems involved but — which is even more im­ portant— to a great improvement in the effectiveness of school instruc­ tion in American history. The committee apparently feels confident that such will be the case. It is well to warn the reader that this is no mere controversial state­ ment. Despite its clear language, its brevity, and the relatively short time in which it was completed, this report is a major contribution to the understanding of this problem. The reviewer knows of no better state­ ment in so brief a compass of why Americans should know their own history than is to be found in the second chapter of this report. It has drawn on the best of antecedent thought and added something of its own. Nor does the reviewer know of a clearer, wiser, or more practical method of making the successive courses in American history continu­ ously interesting and effective than is set forth in chapter 6, however much difference of opinion may arise as to details. Likewise it will be hard to find anywhere a clearer statement of the distinctive function of American history as apart from social studies. These are among the out­ standing contributions of the report. They reflect many years of careful study and maturity of thought applied to that study. We can thank the current controversy in the press as affording the opportunity for the publi­ cation of this report. We can also thank that controversy for the relatively simple, vigorous, and clear language in which it is written — language intelligible alike to the public-spirited layman and the teacher. Readers of Minnesota History will find the report of added interest because of the prominent part taken in it by three members of the Min­ nesota Historical Society. Dr. Guy Stanton Ford, now executive officer of the Amercian Historical Association, and Dean Theodore C. Blegen, until recently president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 170 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 1""^ were co-chairmen of the committee, and Professor Exlgar B. Wesley of the University of Minnesota was the director of the study. AUGUST C. KREY

A Short History of American Democracy. By JOHN D. HICKS. (Boston, Houghton Mifffin Company, 1943. xii, 858, xxxiv p. Illustrations, maps. $4.00.) A Short History of American Democracy. By ROY F. NICHOLS and JEAN- NETTE P. NICHOLS. (New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1943. xvii, 626, Ixx p. Illustrations, maps. $4.00.) Twentieth Century United States: A History. By JEANNETTE P. NICHOLS. (New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1943. xiii, 435, Ixxi p. Illustrations, maps. $3.50.)

These volumes are excellent illustrations of the truism that each gen­ eration must rewrite the nation's history in the light of its own experi­ ences. Today in a world at war people are finding it necessary to revise or to discard long-cherished ideas and beliefs. Democracy as practiced in the United States is being praised and criticized as never before. Events are moving so rapidly that their significance cannot yet be fully gauged. It is against this background of confusion and complexity that the pres­ ent interpretations of the country's past have been written. The volumes have much in common. Their purpose is to make the reader conscious of his heritage, to enable him to understand the present, and to equip him to meet intelligently a constantly changing future. Each volume is largely a condensation of earlier works. Dr. Hicks has drawn heavily upon his works on The Federal Union and The Ameri­ can Nation, while the Nichols relied mainly on their Growth of American Democracy and The Republic of the United States. In all three cases, however, there has been rewriting and the addition of new material. Each of the authors feels vitally the value of the American experiment in democracy. Particularly do the Nichols keep ever before the reader the story of the early development and evolution of democ­ racy in our society. Professor Hicks and the Nichols in A Short History of American Democracy cover the same ground — the European background of American history through Pearl Harbor, with some mention of a few of the highlights of 1942. The Nichols' text is briefer than the other, and it sacrifices interesting detail accordingly. A definite liberal tone is ap­ parent in the Nichols' interpretation, whereas Mr. Hicks achieves greater 1944 TANSILL : CANADIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS I7I objectivity, yet without losing vitality of style. Both volumes devote more space to the later years than to the earlier period of American develop­ ment. Mr. Hicks dispenses with the Colonial era and the Revolution in 98 pages; the Nichols manage it in 103 pages. The period from the Revolution through the Civil War receives 310 pages in the Hicks and 152 pages in the Nichols volume. The years from 1865 to 1920 consume 311 pages in the former and 232 pages in the latter book, while each gives 139 pages to the years from 1920 to 1942. All phases of American life, including the military, are adequately discussed. The Nichols have included sixteen pages of bibliography. Mr. Hicks, on the other hand, has confined himself to giving footnote references to supplementary read­ ings throughout his text. The general format, illustrations, and maps of the Hicks volume are excellent and add much to the attractiveness of the book. The Nichols work suffers by comparison in these matters. Particu­ larly are its maps lacking in uniformity and quality. Both, of course, have indexes. In addition, the Declaration of Independence, the Consti­ tution, and lists of the presidents, vice-presidents, and cabinet members have been included by the Nichols in an appendix. Chapters i and 2 of the Twentieth Century United States were writ­ ten solely for this work, in order to provide a background for an under­ standing of the forces behind the 1900's, and the final chapter is mainly new material. The rest of the book, essentially, appeared in the second volume of The Republic of the United States. Like that work, the pres­ ent study is well done. The years 1918 to 1942 are allotted 200 out of a total of 435 pages. Selective bibliographies are appended to each chapter, and a book list is placed at the end of the volume. The Constitution, the presidential vote from 1900 to 1940, names of cabinet members, and the political complexion of Congress appear in the appendix. It is difficult to wax enthusiastic over textbooks. None of these vol­ umes is a classic, yet each is a scholarly piece of work. Errors of fact and typesetting are practically nonexistent. Each can be recommended as a guide to a clearer understanding of why we are where we are today. MERRILL E. JARCHOW

Canadian-American Relations, i8y^-i9ii. By CHARLES CALLAN TANSILL, professor of American diplomatic history, Fordham University. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1943. xi, 507 p. $3.50.)

The volumes in the series The Relations of Canada and the United States offer abundant evidence of the extent and diversity of the contacts 172 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 1°"^ between these two countries. Professor Tansill's contribution to this series is a study of one period in the history of their diplomatic relations. This volume comprises a collection of monographic studies of the disputes re­ lating to the North Adantie fisheries, the Alaska boundary, and the fur- seal fisheries. It concludes with a short section on the agitation for commercial union and reciprocity, a topic which has .dso been examined in another volume of the series. Since there is no treatment of such mat­ ters as the Plains Indian problem, extradition arrangements, and the International Joint Commission, it cannot be described as a complete diplomatic history of the period. The study is based on manuscript ma­ terials in the depositories at Washington and Ottawa. Perhaps its most valuable feature is the exhaustive presentation of the American view­ point, based to a considerable extent on the collections of private papers in the Library of Congress. The negotiations are presented in great detail, and their complexity demands a more thorough analysis and summary than the author pro­ vides. Throughout the period, negotiations were complicated by Can­ ada's diplomatic dependence on the British government. The latter appears in this study in the role of a conciliator, seeking to produce harmony between the two neighbors. There is little emphasis on the trend of development during the period, or on the determinants of the policies of the three governments. In the preface reference is made to the effect of the business cycle, the foreign policy of Great Britain, and developing Canadian nationalism on the attitude of the dominion gov­ ernment to the United States during the years covered. Other factors affecting that attitude could be added. The policies of a great power have a profound influence on public opinion in neighboring countries. Thus the tensions accompanying a dispute loomed larger and persisted longer in Canadian than in American minds. There was also the herit­ age of fear of American expansionism which had been a factor in the Confederation movement. And at times there was that sheer love of competition for the resources of a continent, expressed in Canadian de­ termination not to be beaten by the Yankees. It is disappointing that the extensive research embodied in this volume did not find expression in a fuller interpretation of negotiations which cannot be separated from a rich texture of Canadian-American contacts.

LEWIS H. THOMAS '944 HAMLIN : GREEK REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE I73 Greek Revival Architecture in America: Being an Account of Important Trends in American Architecture and American Life Prior to the War Between the States. By TALBOT HAMLIN. (New York, Oxford University Press, 1944. xiii, 439 p. Illustrations. $7.50.) "Everywhere that intensive research in the history of these lovely towns and villages has been carried on, the same story has been true; the beautiful churches, the handsome courthouses, the welcoming and digni­ fied houses did not just happen — they were planned, and they were beautiful because someone had so conceived them and seen that they were built according to his conception." It is this search for the person behind the building, his background and the ideas which he wished to express, that makes Talbot Hamlin's study of early nineteenth-century American architecture so engrossing. He defines the Greek revival as the use of classic orders to aid in the development of buildings express­ ing American ideals. The vogue became a national expression because of public sympathy with the contemporary struggle for Greek independ­ ence and because of the emphasis on the classics in American education. The period was that of the frontier for Minnesota and its neighbors. "The setders who built so many of the towns of Ohio and Michigan and Illinois and Tennessee were, many of them, not the picturesque pioneers of fiction; they were solid citizens with the polished background of New England or Maryland or Virginia behind them. . . . They were men who started academies and colleges in the town they created almost as soon as the forests had been cut down." The author has synthesized local research into the story of national development. In a carved Greek god­ dess on a Michigan farmhouse he sees an expression of the ideals of the settlers of the old Northwest Territory. There are few examples of Minnesota architecture — only scant men­ tion of the St. Croix Valley and Mendota, evidence of the need for re­ search and publication on the architectural history of this state. Many suggestions are given, however, for the appreciation and conservation of Minnesota pioneer architecture. Michigan's activities in preserving its "architectural heritage" and "'reconditioning a large number of Greek Revival monuments" are described. From varied sources, including plumbers' advertisements and city directories, Mr. Hamlin has collected a vast amount of information, and the special character of each town he describes, as well as the personality of the architect or builder who worked there, becomes vivid and alive. Sightseers and students alike may 174 REVIEWS OF BOOKS J""^ profit by the material found in the book, for it leaves the reader with a pleasant sense of continuity instead of the abrupt jerk of guidebook passages. All parts of the country are treated for the most part impartially, though the story of the West is somewhat abbreviated. A New York point of view lurks behind the comment that a Kansas mission of 1841 is "as sure and well handled as though the building had stood five hundred miles to the east!" The author seems a bit surprised that the Mississippi was no barrier to the classic tradition. He does show that there was beauty in much of the West's early architecture — that it can match in its way that of regions with a century or so more of building tradition to their credit. EVADENE BURRIS SWANSON

David Dale Owen: Pioneer Geologist of the Middle West (Indiana His­ torical Collections, vol. 27). By WALTER B. HENDRICKSON. (Indian­ apolis, Indiana Historical Bureau, 1943. xiii, 180 p. Illustrations. $2.00.)

During his brief but active career as a pioneering American geologist, David Dale Owen made no conscious effort to lighten the task of any­ one who might later choose to prepare his biography. He wrote no diaries or journals, and few of his letters appear to have been earmarked for preservation. Nevertheless, there are his scientific publications, tucked away in government reports now rarely consulted; these, together with contemporary reviews and sources relating to that strange adventure in science with which the Owen family and New Harmony, Indiana, are associated, form the bases of this reconstructed life history. In the hands of a writer familiar with the geological field, the meager sources have proved more than adequate; the biography has the ring of fidelity, and it rescues its subject, as the author hoped it would, from an undeserved obscurity. Even though posterity has judged Owen to be less than a great scien­ tist. Professor Hendrickson's book is a significant contribution. Open­ ing in the Scottish home of the Owen family at New Lanark, the story shifts briefly to Switzerland and then to Glasgow, where the future geol­ ogist was introduced to the physical sciences. Thereafter it centers about the New Harmony community, Owen's principal, if not altogether sat­ isfactory, headquarters until his death in i860 at the age of fifty-three. 1944 WIMBERLY : PRAIRIE SCHOONER CARAVAN 175 Although he organized and directed the first geological surveys of In­ diana, Kentucky, and Arkansas, Owen is most renowned for his Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota (Philadelphia, 1852). Professor Hendrickson's appraisal of the report closely parallels that of N. H. Winchell, who states that it throws "the first real light ... on the geology and the present fauna and flora of Minnesota," add­ ing that the most valuable part of the Minnesota description was written by Dr. J. G. Norwood, one of Owen's aides. The reader interested in history should not decide, on prima-facie evidence, that this biography is likely to prove too heavy in geology to suit his taste and understanding. The author has skillfully cleared the way for the layman, who will find here much to enlighten the cultural scene of the first part of the nineteenth century. David Dale Owen, it is pointed out, "propounded no new hypoth­ eses; he wrote no exhaustive treatise on any subject; and he made no one geologic field his special study." And he also made occasional mis­ takes! A wholly understandable figure is Owen, although present-day geologists and geographers, concerned largely with regions already well mapped and investigated, may not comprehend the value of that degree of reconnaissance which, in the 1840's, permitted surveys of whole town­ ships in a day's time. RALPH H. BROWN

Prairie Schooner Caravan. Edited by LOWRY C. WIMBERLY. With an introduction by DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER. (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1943. 351 p. $3.00.)

Since the demise of John T. Frederick's Midland magazine some ten years ago, the Prairie Schooner is the leading Middle Western magazine issued on a noncommercial basis and devoted to the publication of meri­ torious verse and prose. Under the competent editorship of Professor Lowry C. Wimberly of the University of Nebraska it has flourished since 1927 and has long been the vehicle of able but generally unknown writers. It is a regional magazine in the best sense of the term for, al­ though it is particularly happy to print sound writing on Middle West­ ern themes, it welcomes significant work of all kinds. The Prairie Schooner Anthology is an anthology of the best verse, ar­ ticles, and short fiction published in the magazine during the last seven­ teen years. Only one Minnesota author, Meridel Le Sueur, is represented. 176 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 1""= but the reader will recognize the names of many of the contributors: August Derleth, the prolific Wisconsin Valley author; Mari Sandoz of Nebraska; Jesse Stuart, the Kentucky poet and novelist; Frank Luther Mott, the historian of American magazines; the proletarian novelist, Al­ bert Halper; the distinguished Mississippi writer of short stories, Eudora Welty; and young poets like Edward Weismiller and Joseph Joel Keith. As in every anthology of creative writing, there is wide range here and considerable unevenness. The verse, generally short lyrics, is techni­ cally competent but undistinguished. The articles set a high standard (for example, the sketch of the career of George Francis Train), and several of the short stories (notably those by Miss Sandoz, Miss Welty, and Miriam de Ford) are definitely superior to run-of-the-mill magazine fiction. The anthology is attractively printed on good stock, but it is bound in paper covers — probably one of the minor casualties of the war. The Prairie Schooner deserves a larger audience.

JOHN T. FLANAGAN Minnesota Historical Society Notes

THE SOCIETY is described as Minnesota's "Link With the Past" in an edi­ torial published in the Minneapolis Star Journal for February 24. Al­ though the "society is often taken for granted because it has grown with the state and is interwoven so tightly with its tradition," reads the edi­ torial, "it isn't a static institution." Its accomplishments through the years in the fields of collecting, display, and publication are briefly sur­ veyed; and the reader is informed that the society now "has a new off­ shoot: a division of school service." The writer concludes that "the state is fortunate that its early setders wrote their history as soon as it was made, more fortunate yet that a full record of it has been kept."

Evidence that the advantages to be gained from institutional member­ ship are appreciated particularly in Koochiching County is to be found in the fact that every school in the county is now affiliated with the so­ ciety through this type of membership. A list of these schools will appear in the September issue of Minnesota History. All have armounced that they intend to participate in a school activity program now being worked out as a part of the society's service for schools (see ante, p. 73). The program is intended particularly to aid teachers of American history and to suggest ways in which they can utilize the materials and backgrounds at hand in their own communities. In order to obtain ideas and sugges­ tions for building up local historical collections and inaugurating local history work along other lines, five Koochiching County superintendents visited the Historical Building in St. Paul recently.

Volumes 23 and 24 of Minnesota History have been bound and are now ready for distribution. Members of the society and subscribers to its publications who return the separate issues for 1942 and 1943 may ob­ tain the bound volumes for seventy-five cents each, an amount which covers the cost of binding and shipping. Each volume includes four is­ sues of the society's quarterly, a table of contents, and an index. As long as the limited supply lasts, separate copies of the index for 1943 will be sent upon request free of charge to members and subscribers.

Five members of the society's staff—Mr. Beeson, Mr. Babcock, Miss Heilbron, Miss Krausnick, and Miss Nute — attended the annual meet-

177 178 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES 1""= ing of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association in St. Louis from April 20 to 22. Miss Nute appeared on the program with a paper on "A Late Frontier of Settlement: Lake Superior's North Shore." As president of the association. Dean Theodore C. Blegen of the University of Min­ nesota graduate school, a former superintendent of the society, delivered the presidential address at the annual dinner of the association on April 20. He took as his subject "Our Widening Province," suggesting the ever expanding opportunities for research that are open to the historian, particularly in the fields of social and cultural history. He also advocated a central clearinghouse where the pooled findings of historians could be made available to scholars everywhere. Miss Note's volume on Lake Superior is announced for publication on July 31 by the Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis. It will form the second volume in the American Lakes Series edited by Milo M. Quaife. The first volume in the series, Fred Landon's Lake Huron (398 p.), appeared early in 1944. It will be reviewed in a future issue of this magazine.

Miss Heilbron's article on "Walter Reed in Minnesota," which ap­ peared in the September issue of this magazine, has been reprinted in the March number of the Journal Lancet.

Mr. Beeson is serving on the committee on membership of the Mis­ sissippi Valley Historical Association. Miss Nute has been appointed to the editorial board of the American Archivist, and she is a member of a committee on archival equipment of the Society of American Archivists. As a member of a committee on arrangements of a proposed Minnesota folk arts foundation, Miss Heilbron is helping to plan a folk arts con­ ference to be held on the campus of the University of Minnesota in the fall. ' ' ': I i t The thirty-six additions to the society's active membership made in the three months from January i to March 31 include a life member, Richard P. Gale of Mound, a sustaining member, Gerald T. Mullin of Minneapolis, and the following annual members: Glen F. Alden of Avon, Illinois, Richard W. Bartsch of Camp Roberts, California, Mrs. Clara S. Basford of Minneapolis, Charles T. Burnley of St. Paul, Miss Rhoda Christensen of St. Paul, Theodore G. Driscoll of St. Paul, Leon­ ard H. Frisch of Minneapolis, Dr. Alice H. Fuller of Minneapolis, Mrs. Esther E. Giefer of St. Paul, Horace H. Glenn of Minneapolis, Harvey '944 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES I79 W. Grimmer of St. Cloud, Dr. Russell R. Heim of Minneapolis, Alex Kyyhkynen of Duluth, Roy W. Larsen of Minneapolis, Miss Alice E. Leonard of Minneapolis, Dr. Francis W. Lynch of St. Paul, John W. Mathys of Minneapolis, Rev. Charles E. McColley of Cranston, Rhode Island, D. McLeod of Ontario, Canada, Mrs. Stanley E. Patterson of Duluth, Dr. Charles A. Reed of Minneapolis, Dr. William E. Rochford of Minneapolis, Mrs. Arthur C. Schaper of Minneapolis, Rolfe B. Schjoll of Minneapolis, Mrs. Blanche K. Severe of St. Paul, Mrs. Marion D. Shutter of Minneapolis, Clarence J. Thomas of St. Paul, Lewis H. Thomas of Minneapolis, Dr. Edward L. Tuohy of Duluth, Leslie E. Westin of Stillwater, Frederick P. Wheeler of Minneapolis, Edith B. Whitney of Vir­ ginia, Frederick S. Winston of Minneapolis, and G. Aaron Youngquist of Minneapolis.

Twenty Minnesota schools subscribed to the society's publications dur­ ing the first quarter of 1944. They are the Boy River High School of Boy River, the Hector Public School of Hector, the Consolidated School District No. i8 of Isle, the Como Park and Murray high schools of St. Paul, and the following Minneapolis schools: Central High, Clara Bar­ ton, Cleveland, Franklin Junior High, Hay, Jefferson Junior High, Jor­ dan Junior High, Lyndale, Margaret Fuller, Miller Vocational High, Patrick Henry High, Robert Fulton, Roosevelt High, Sanford Junior High, and Sidney Pratt.

During the three months from January i to March 31 the society lost six active members by death: E. A. Brown of Luverne on January 12, Willibald Eibner of New Ulm on January 13, William B. Getchell of Duluth on February 5, Lester B. Shippee of Minneapolis on February 9, William A. Laidlaw of St. Paul on March 7, and George P. Case of Minneapolis on March 11.

One of the society's unique treasures, Lincoln's order for the execu­ tion of the Sioux who were found guilty of participation in the outbreak of 1862, is reproduced in facsimile in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for February 12. Those who "want again to measure the stature of a great American" are advised to "wander up to the State Historical building and have a look at" this document.

The society entertained members of the Twin City chapter of the Special Libraries Association on the evening of February 17, when that organization held its monthly meeting in the Historical Building. A talk l8o HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES J""*^ by Dr. Beeson, explaining the work of the society, was followed by a tour of the building. Special exhibits illustrative of the activities of the various divisions of the society were arranged for the benefit of the visi­ tors.

The acting superintendent spoke on the society's relation to national groups in the state before a meeting of the Minnesota Finnish-American Historical Society in Minneapolis on January 15. Miss Nute discussed her work as curator of manuscripts before the newcomers' section of the University of Minnesota Faculty Club on January 11; she explained "How a Historical Author Gathers Data" before the Oudook Club of Duluth on January 28; she spoke on "The Lake That Is Superior" be­ fore the annual meeting of the society on January 10, the Colonial Dames of Minnesota meeting in St. Paul on February 9, and the Rotary Club of Port Arthur, Ontario, on March 28; she reviewed the story of Lake Superior before the University Women's Club of Port Arthur on March 27; and she described the society's resources for the history of Port Arthur and Fort William before a meeting of the Thunder Bay Historical Society at Fort William on March 29.

CONTRIBUTORS Catharine M. Sedgwick, whose report of the Rock Island Railroad ex­ cursion of 1854 is herein reprinted to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the event, was a widely known novelist of the early nineteenth century. The American domestic novel is said to have had its beginning in her work, and she was a pioneer in the use of the American background for fiction, drawing upon the natural beauty and local life of her native New England for her settings. Her journey to the frontier West by rail and boat in the summer of 1854, when she was in her sixty-fifth year, marked one of her few departures from New England in the later dec­ ades of her long life. As archaeologist in the department of anthropology of the University of Minnesota, Dr. Lloyd A. Wilford has been engaged in the study of "The Prehistoric Indians of Minnesota" for more than a decade. He has participated in most of the important excavations made as part of the university's program of archaeological research. Among his publications is an article giving "A Tentative Classification of the Prehistoric Cul­ tures of Minnesota," which appeared in American Antiquity for Janu- '944 ACCESSIONS l8l ary, 1941. He plans to follow his present brief explanation of Minnesota's prehistoric inhabitants and their cultures with articles on the Mille Lacs, Headwaters Lakes, and Rainy River aspects of those cultures. The second installment of the diary kept by Isaac L. Taylor while "Campaigning with the First Minnesota" appears in this issue. It has been edited by Miss Hazel C. Wolf of Peoria, Illinois (see ante, p. 75). The series of articles on "Minnesota History and the Schools" is con­ tinued herein with an account of "Pioneer Reunions in St. Louis County" by Benjamin G. Leighton, who was director of the leisure education department of the St. Louis County rural schools from 1933 to 1943. Previous to 1933 he was a teacher in the Minneapolis public schools and a director of recreation in Minneapolis and Hibbing. He is now assistant professor of rural sociology in Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. Dr. John T. Flanagan of the department of English in the University of Minnesota was granted a leave of absence in 1943-44 in order to accept a Guggenheim fellowship. He has spent some months during the winter at the Newberry Library in Chicago. In that city he found the little-known tale of the Falls of St. Anthony which he de­ scribes in the "Notes and Documents" section. Among the reviewers contributing to the present issue are Dr. August C. Krey, professor of history in the University of Minnesota and a mem­ ber of the society's executive council; Lieutenant Merrill E. Jarchow of the United States Navy, an instructor in the pre-flight school at Iowa City; Mr. Lewis H. Thomas, a graduate student in history in the Uni­ versity of Minnesota whose home is in western Canada; Professor Ralph H. Brown of the department of geography in the University of Minne­ sota; and Dr. Evadene Burris Swanson, a research assistant in the University of Minnesota department of fine arts whose articles and re­ views appear frequently in this magazine.

ACCESSIONS Mr. William H. Amerland of Wabasha has presented an extensive and valuable collection of autographs, consisting of eighteen volumes and more than fourteen hundred items. Many of the signatures are ac­ companied by sketches, bits of poetry, bars of music, or remarks typical of the individuals represented, who reflect a wide range of interest and professional activity. Included, for example, are the autographs of Abra­ ham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, William Howard Taft, John Philip l82 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES l"""^ Sousa, Joseph F. Smith, Count Leo Tolstoy, Henry Clay, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Octave Thanet, and Robert E. Peary. Photographs, newspaper clippings, two boxes of letters relating to the collection, two scrapbooks, and a number of books on autograph collecting accompany the gift. Another important group of manuscripts received from Mr. Amerland consists of papers of Alexis Bailly, a pio­ neer Minnesota fur trader who operated at Mendota before Henry H. Sibley's arrival and who later settled at Wabasha. Included are two ac­ count books covering the years 1826-27 and 1843-44, Indian credit books for 1826-27, 1832, and 1847, ^"'^ numerous letters and receipts for the years from 1835 to 1848 signed mainly by Sibley, Major Lawrence Talia­ ferro, and Joseph Laframboise.

Letters, legal and financial records, clippings, and numerous other items dating from 1774 to 1929 comprise the papers of Thomas H. Dick­ son and his wife, Elizabeth Gregory Dickson, which were presented to the society shortly before her death by their daughter, the late Anna M. Dickson of St. Paul. The collection, which fills three filing boxes, in­ cludes many of the papers of the Reverend Casper R. Gregory, the donor's maternal grandfather, who served as a Presbyterian minister at various places in New York and New Jersey; other items reflect the career of her paternal grandfather, James R. Dickson of Philadelphia. Of local interest are the papers of Thomas H. Dickson, who settled in St. Paul in 1879 and did much to promote the development of the area near Macalester College. Genealogical data about the Dickson, Gregory, and Montgomery families are to be found in the collection.

The official journals kept from 1814 to 1822 by the American and British commissioners who, under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, surveyed the boundary between the United States and Canada westward to the Lake of the Woods have been copied on filmslides for the society from the originals in the National Archives, through the courtesy of Mr. Thomas Riggs of Washington. Mr. Riggs served as one of the editors of The Unfortified Boundary (New York, 1943), which makes available the personal diary of the American agent of the commission. Major Jo­ seph Delafield. The volume is reviewed ante, 24:341-343. With the jour­ nals are filmslide copies of reports of the meetings of the commission and of letters written by Delafield between 1822 and 1827 to the secre­ taries of state, John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. '944 ACCESSIONS 183 A wealth of material on the Indians of Minnesota — Sioux, Chip­ pewa, and Winnebago — from 1852 to 1866 is to be found in five boxes of papers of Clark W. Thompson, received through the courtesy of the La Crosse County Historical Society and of Mrs. Samuel Hyde of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Since the collection embraces the period from 1861 to 1865, when Thompson was head of the northern Indian superintendency at St. Paul, it is particularly valuable as a source of information on the Sioux Outbreak and on the expeditions of the early i86o's westward into Dakota against the warring Sioux. The importance of the papers may be judged from the fact that they include numerous letters from such mis­ sionaries to the Indians as Bishop Henry B. Whipple, Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, and the Reverend Stephen R. Riggs and his wife; from Indian agents like Thomas J. Galbraith, A. C. Morrill, and L. E. Webb; and from such prominent Minnesotans as Joseph R. Brown, Alexander Ramsey, Henry M. Rice, William Windom, Morton S. Wilkinson, Dr. William W. Mayo, and Henry H. Sibley. In one interesting and impor­ tant letter dated October 24, 1863, Sibley describes his adventures as the leader of an expedition against the Sioux. Among the papers are six volumes kept by subagents to the Winnebago from 1852 to 1859. At least five of these volumes seem to contain records of goods sold to individual Indians at the Long Prairie Reservation. Thompson's interest in pro­ moting frontier transportation also is reflected in his papers, which con­ tain material on J. C. Burbank and his stage company and on the history of the Root River Valley and Southern Minnesota Railroad. Many of the letters relate to Minnesota politics, in which Thompson played an important role. There is also much interesting material on the early his­ tory of such southern Minnesota communities as Hokah, Rochester, Chatfield, and Caledonia.

Financial and economic conditions in frontier Minnesota and the prices of land there are noted in two letters written in 1859 and i860 by Edmund Mackintire of Houston County to Joel Eaton of Dedham, Mas­ sachusetts, received from the Symacchus Trading Company of Boston. For a thousand dollars, according to Mackintire, from twenty to thirty thousand acres of land could be purchased in Minnesota.

Two scrapbooks kept from 1859 to 1890 by Alexander Ramsey Nin- inger of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a nephew and namesake of Minne­ sota's pioneer governor, have been received from Mrs. Meta Nininger of New York. Included is some of Nininger's correspondence with Gov- 184 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES J^^E ernor Ramsey. In addition to letters, the scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, commissions, school records, and material on Nininger's Civil War service.

Genealogical data about the family of Charles F. Johnson, a pioneer resident of Duluth, are recorded in an interesting family Bible published in Sweden in 1782, which has been presented by his daughter, Mrs. Afton B. Hilton of Duluth. With her gift is a translation of a letter written by Johnson in 1859, in which he describes his departure from Sweden six years earlier and his subsequent experiences. The letter was addressed to the writer's grandmother in Sweden; it has been translated by his grandson, Mr. Carl F. Johnson of St. Paul.

A commission as second lieutenant in the state militia issued to Charles Bachmann, a Carver County pioneer, in 1863, and his discharge papers of 1865 have been presented by his daughter, Mrs. Selma Tuchelt of St. Paul. Ex-governor A. O. Eberhart of Minnesota has presented a copy of his autobiography, entitled "The American Way of Life" and consisting of 138 typewritten pages. The narrative, which spans the period from the author's birth in Sweden in 1870 to the present, deals largely with political events, state and national.

An account book for the years from 1876 to 1883 and certificates of membership on the Minnesota state board of equalization dated August 11,1897, March 28, 1901, and April 20,1903, have been added to the papers of Emerson Cole by Miss Vera Cole of Minneapolis (see ante, 22:423). With her gift are a number of miscellaneous items, including some rec­ ords of the Oak Grove Tennis Club and a print issued in 1871 to advertise the Oak Grove House at Odar Lake in Minneapolis. She also has pre­ sented a toy magic lantern of an early type.

Some material about the Windom and Hatch families, an article written by Henry Martyn Field at the time of William Windom's death, letters written by Mrs. Ellen Towne Windom to her son William D. Windom between 1881 and 1906, and some newspaper clippings are among eleven items added to the Windom Papers by Mr. Roger L. Win­ dom of Orlando, Florida. One of the clippings, published in 1889, when Windom became secretary of the treasury for the second time, includes a sketch of his career. '944 ACCESSIONS 185 Mr. Will H. Harrison of Des Moines, Iowa, has presented a letter written on birchbark at Lake Itasca in 1891 by C. E. Harrison. The writer mentions a marker placed at the source of the Mississippi by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Letters relating to legal matters in the St. Croix Valley written by Judge Otto W. Arnquist in 1896 and 1897 are included in a letterpress volume presented by Willis H. Miller of Hudson. Mr. Miller also has added some items for the decades from 1890 to 1920 to the papers of James A. Andrews (see ante, 24:165); he has presented some papers of J. G. Thompson of Hudson for the years from 1899 to 1902; and he has given a map of Madison, Wisconsin, probably published about i860.

Five scrapbooks of material relating to the activities of the St. Paul College Club from 1928 to 1939 have been received from its secretary, Mrs. Arthur L. Luedke of St. Paul.

The minutes of the Kenwood Monday Club of Minneapolis, covering the years from 1931 to 1936, are recorded in a manuscript volume re­ ceived from Mr. Willoughby M. Babcock of Minneapolis. It contains the attendance records and the treasurer's reports of a women's reading so­ ciety.

Notes on the history of lumbering and of forest fires on the North Shore of Lake Superior, prepared by John Fritzen and A. M. Erickson of the forestry division of the Minnesota department Of conservation, are in­ cluded with some reports received from the department through the courtesy of Mr. Lloyd L. Smith, Jr., of St. Paul. The remainder of the material relates to the work of the bureau of fisheries research and to fish­ eries on the North Shore and on Lake Vermilion.

A copy of a master's thesis on "Pioneer Rivalries in Minnesota East, 1650-1816," prepared at Northwestern University in 1936 by Hannah B. Tilman of Eveleth, has been made on filmslides for the society. Another master's thesis recently copied on films for the society's collection is Paul B. Ingersoll's study of "The Merritt Brothers and the Opening of the Mesabi Range," submitted in the University of Chicago in 1928.

Memorials of twenty deceased members of the Hennepin County Bar Association, read at a meeting of the organization on February 19, 1944, have been received through the courtesy of Mr. Charles B. Howard of l86 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES J""^ Minneapolis. Included is a memorial to a former president of the Minne­ sota Historical Society, Edward C. Gale. A rare pamphlet entitled History of Mankato Presbytery (Synod of Minnesota), i86y-i898, compiled by H. M. Palm (Worthington, 1898. 72 p.), is the gift of the Reverend L. L. Smythe of Pine River. It contains an account of the organization of the presbytery in 1867, and traces the beginnings of Presbyterian church work in Minnesota back to 1834, when the Pond brothers arrived at Fort Snelling. Brief sketches of each church in the presbytery are presented, and the names of ministers, with records of their services, are listed alphabetically. This pamphlet, which has long been out of print, is a welcome addition to the society's collection of ma­ terial on pioneer churches.

A copy of Joze Zavertnik's Ameriski Slovenci (Chicago, 1925), which contains a wealth of information about the Slovenians in the United States, has been received from the Slovene National Benefit So­ ciety. A separate chapter is devoted to the Slovenians in each state of the Union. Brief histories of the Slovenian settlements at Biwabik, Chisholm, Duluth, Ely, and Gilbert, and sketches of several missionaries, including Father Francis Pierz, are presented in the Minnesota chapter.

About three hundred and sixty items are included in a valuable col­ lection of patriotic covers of the Civil War period, assembled by the late Colonel Charles H. Graves of Duluth and presented in his memory by his widow, who resides in Santa Barbara, California. Most of these en­ velopes bear highly colored lithographic decorations. Military camps, batde scenes, cities, flags, and patriotic emblems are pictured on many of the covers; some bear portraits of Lincoln and other Union leaders; oth­ ers show caricatures of individuals or satirize contemporary situations; and some are decorated with the insignia of specific regiments or indi­ vidual states. Included in the gift are some Confederate bonds and some photographs and engravings of the Civil War period. A brief descriptive account of the collection, by Falsum Russell, appears in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for April 16.

A small sewing machine that was operated by hand, dating from 1858, and a machine for knitting stockings, manufactured in 1867, are the gifts of Mrs. Chester E. Riebeth and Mr. Webster W. Benton of Min­ neapolis. '944 ACCESSIONS 187 A crayon portrait of the Reverend Samuel W. Pond made late in his life and an oil painting of the Pond house and mission at Shakopee have been presented by Mrs. George Pond of St. Paul in the name of the Pond family. Other recent additions to the picture collection include a photo­ graphic copy of a sketch of Fisher's Landing in 1885, from Mr. R. G. Duidava of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; eight photographs taken dur­ ing an old-time threshing party near Montgomery in Octolser, 1943, from Mr. Joseph R. Rynda, Jr., of Montgomery; a crayon portrait of Charles Friend, from Mr. William Friend of St. Paul; a photograph of the Rev­ erend Joseph Goiffon, a pioneer Minnesota priest, from Mr. Charles Tereau of St. Paul; and a photograph of Governor Stephen Miller, from Lieutenant Colonel Charles F. Wieland of Berkeley, California.

Recendy acquired publications of historical and genealogical societies include a Register of Members and Ancestors of Piscataqua Pioneers, 1623-iyy^ (Exeter, New Hampshire, 1942. 72 p.); The Huguenot, which appears as number 11 of the Publications of the Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia (Staunton, Vir­ ginia, 1943. 154 p.); Recueil de genealogies des Comtes de Charlevoix et Saguenay depuis Vorigine jusqu'cl 1939, issued as number 5 of the Publi­ cations of the Societe Historique du Saguenay (1941. 594 p.); and An- cestral Records, 1931-1936 of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937. 144 p.). Vol­ umes 9 and 10 of the American Genealogical Index, in which surnames bcgining with the letter "D" are indexed, have also been added to the society's collection. Among the genealogies received during the first quarter of 1944 are two of special Minnesota interest. Archibald W. McKinstry, who was editor and publisher of the Faribault Republican from 1866 to 1912, and his daughter, Grace E. McKinstry, an artist of national fame, are in­ cluded in the Genealogy of the Descendants of Perseus and Grace (Wil­ liams) McKinstry of Chicopee, Massachusetts, by Ruth E. McKinstry (Chicopee, 1943. 21 p.). Twelve Generations of Parleys, by Jesse K. Farley, Jr. (Evanston, Illinois, 1943. 251 p.), contains a chapter on Jesse Preston Farley, who was appointed receiver of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1873 and was later involved in litigation'with James J. Hill and Norman W. Kittson. Excerpts from reports of the case of Farley v. Hill, as published in the Dubuque Herald from 1879 to 1893, appear in an appiendix. l88 HISTORICAL SOCIETY NOTES J""^ Both New England and Southern families are well represented in newly acquired genealogies. Among the volumes dealing with New England families are: The Descendants of John Ball of Watertown, Mas­ sachusetts, 1630-1635 by Frank D. Warren (Boston, 1932. 161 p.); The Crockett Family of New England by Leon O. Crockett (Camden, Maine, 1943. 47 p.); A Genealogy of the Dillingham Family of New England by Winthrop Alexander (East Lynn, Massachusetts, 1943. 270 p.); The Descendants of Alexander Drummond of Georgetown, Maine, by Josiah H. Drummond (Brattleboro, Vermont, 1942. 171 p.); The Nicholas Frost Family by John E. Frost (Milford, New Hampshire, 1943. 142 p.); Genealogy of the Starbird-Starbard Family by Alfred A. Starbird (Bur­ lington, Vermont, 1943. 179 p.); and The Family of Bray Wilkins by William C. Hill (Milford, New Hampshire, 1943. 213 p.). Genealogies of Southern families include: Major John Davidson of "Rural Hill" Mecklenburg County, N. C. by Chalmers G. Davidson (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1943. 93 p.); Descendants of Solomon Langston of Laurens County, South Carolina, through His Son, Bennett by Carroll A. Lang­ ston (Williamsville, Illinois, 1942. 46 p.); The Nunn Family by Charles G. Nunn (Milwaukee, 1939. 64 p.); Daniel Perrin, "The Huguenot," and His Descendants in America by C. E. Perrine (Raritan, Illinois, 1942. 44 p.); General Griffith Rutherford and Allied Families by Min­ nie R. H. Long (Milwaukee, 1942. 194 p.); Root and Branch of the Sale Tree in America by Dorothea S. Goodman (Fairfield, Iowa, 1939. 116 p.); The Smartt and Descendant Families by J. Findley Smartt (St. Louis, 1943. 216 p.); and Descendants of John Sutton and His Wife, Temperance Lane by Carrie T. Goldsborough and Anna G. Fisher (Lex­ ington, Kentucky, 1941. 179 p.). Other genealogies received recently include: The Bebout Family in Flanders and North America by Alexander C. Flick (Ann Arbor, Michi­ gan, 1943. 80 p.); The Bolich Family in America, with Genealogies, by Mary M. Bolich (Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1939. 142 p.); Emanuel Cory­ ell of Lambertville, New Jersey, and His Descendants by Ingham Coryell (Philadelphia, 1943. 35 p.); Genealogy of the Farmer, Cox and Hopkins Families of Fayette County, Illinois by Estelle M. Harrington (St. Louis, Missouri, 1942. 105 p.); Captain John Hatfield, a Genealogy of the Descendants of Captain John Hatfield, Loyalist by Abraham Hat­ field (Rutland, Vermont, 1943. 103 p.); Iseli Family Genealogy by R. Kenneth Gnagi (Monroe, Wisconsin, 1942. 52 p.); Descendants of Rev. Amos Prentice (1804-1849) by John K. Prentice (Barrington, Illinois, '944 ACCESSIONS 189 1942. 54 p.); Introduction, Raub Family History by Edward B. Raub (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1943. 9 p.); The Descendants of Robert Shaw Sturgis and Susan Brimmer Inches by Charles I. Sturgis (Philadelphia, 1943. 40 p.); and Descendants of James Welch, Soldier in King Philip's War, i6y5-y6 by Charles B. Welch (Tacoma, Washington, 1943. 21 p.). Of the local histories received recently, those most useful to the gene­ alogist are: History of Epping, New Hampshire, iy4i-i94i by John J. Tilton (1941. 84 p.); Major John Fenwick, Colonizer and Founder of the First Permanent English Speaking Colony on the Delaware River, Salem County, New Jersey, i6y§ by Frank H. Stewart (Woodbury, New Jersey, 1939. 74 p.); Pioneer History of Greene County, Pennsylvania by L. K. Evans (Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, 1941. 177 p.); The Providence Oath of Allegiance and Its Signers, 1651-2 by Richard L. Bowen (Provi­ dence, Rhode Island, 1943. 92 p.); Records from the Area to be Flooded by the Santee Cooper Project in South Carolina by Martha B. Carson (Chester, South Carolina, 1942. 44 p.); and Potomac Interlude, The Story of Woodlawn Mansion and the Mount Vernon Neighborhood, 1846-1943 by Dorothy T. Muir (Washington, 1943. 198 p.). L.F. News and Comment

WHETHER "historical societies are reaching, as well as they might, the grade school and high school teachers of the country and, through them, the youth upon whom the future of the land depends" is questioned by James W. Moffitt in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review for March. Mr. Moffitt, who is secretary of the State Historical Society of Oklahoma, contributes to the "Teacher's Section" of the Review a discussion of "Historical Societies and American History." Although he calls attention to guides and handbooks issued to meet school needs, he expresses the conviction that there are "many things which still could be done to bring the historical society closer to the actual teaching of our nation's narra­ tive." Mr. Moffitt believes that in order "to render the best help to the horde of young Americans, the state historical society must learn to know actual classroom needs and then proceed in the light of those needs." Among the practical suggestions offered is one for an "annual conference for teachers ... at which the practicing teacher could bring her sugges­ tions, questions, and comments and at which the society could extend its manifold services." That it is the duty of the historical society "to dis­ seminate historical information on every level of learning" is the belief of the writer. "If there is a widespread lack of interest in United States his­ tory," he asserts, "it is the responsibility of historical societies, as well as of the schools and colleges, to help correct this situation."

What the Texas State Historical Association is doing to promote the study of local history in the schools of the state is vividly reflected in the Junior Historian, a publication issued for high school students who be­ long to the association's junior branch. The January number contains a number of essays by junior members and an announcement of the "1944 writing contest." For papers and articles on various phases of Texas his­ tory, prizes having a total value of $445.00 are offered, but it is specified that "part of each award will be made in good current Texas books." In an editorial, Professor Carl C. Rister of the University of Oklahoma sug- • gests that "Local chapters of the Junior Historians could well afford to promote a community pioneer day . . . pointed toward re-evaluating pioneer life and its contributions to our present culture." That pioneer reunions and celebrations have long been held in co-operation with the

190 '944 NEWS AND COMMENT igi schools in one Minnesota county is brought out in another section of Min­ nesota History by Mr. B. G. Leighton, who presents some specific sug­ gestions to be followed in planning such an event.

The teaching of local history in the states of the Pacific Northwest is being forwarded by the publication of the Junior Historical Journal, a periodical which is "used by 25,000 eighth and ninth grade boys and girls in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, British Colum­ bia, and Alaska." The March number, which is designated as a "School Number," is devoted to articles on early education in the region, with accounts of the pioneer schools at Fort Vancouver, in Washington, in Portiand, and in Seatde, of "Log Cabin 'Scholars,'" of "Indian Pupils," and of early textbooks. Early colleges and universities of the area also are described.

The text of a radio program on "History in Schools and Colleges," which was broadcast over station WLB on February 11, has been issued in multigraphed form by the Key Center of War Information of the University of Minnesota extension division as number 65 of its Special Bulletins. Participating in the discussion were Professors August C. Krey and George M. Stephenson of the department of history, Mr. William Cartwright, and Mr. Arthur Naftalin.

In a stimulating little volume of essays entitled History and Its Neigh­ bors (1942. 197 p.), Edward M. Hulme suggests that "in the sense of being helpful to her, and also of being helped by her, most studies" may be designated as "neighbors of history." About a third of his book is de­ voted to concise discussions of the relation to history of such studies as astronomy, geology, geography, biology, archaeology, anthropology, lit­ erature, sociology, economics, psychology, heraldry, numismatics, and genealogy.

The belief that "if supremely well done, the historical novel, by pre­ senting the past dramatically, actually gives the reader a more vivid, adequate, and significant apprehension of past epochs than does the his­ torian, who conveys facts about them'' is expressed by Hervey Allen in a discussion of "History and the Novel" appearing in the Atlantic Monthly for February. Mr. Allen reminds his readers^ of the limitations placed upon the historian by the fact that he is "morally bound not to vary or to rearrange his data so as to depart from the literal, factual truth in time, place, or person." Since the novelist "appeals to the imagination and emo- 192 NEWS AND COMMENT J^^E tions," however, he is "under obligation to alter facts, circumstances, people, and even dates" because he is "morally bound, as a good crafts­ man, to give his readers as complete an illusion as possible of having lived in the past."

"The westward movement did more than turn the eyes of the restless and the ambitious across the AUeghenies; to the writer of historical fic­ tion the opening of the Northwest Territory meant new and untouched material, unfamiliar traditions and legends, fresh characters, significant movements to assess." Thus writes John T. Flanagan in the introduction to his detailed study of "The Middle Western Historical Novel," which appears in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society for March. Dr. Flanagan groups under two headings — "Politics and War" and "So­ cial and Economic Life" — the many works of fiction published after "novelists discovered the vast opportunities inherent in the history and geography of that enormous region stretching westward toward the Rockies and from the Ohio River to Canada." His review will serve as a useful guide to all who are interested in western literature. The writer gives the impression, however, that most of the stories he discusses are more valuable as historical documents than as literature, for he concludes that the "middle western historical novel has not, on the whole, been a triumph of art and realism." Among the many unexploited themes that "have still not found their storyteUers," Dr. Flanagan suggests life in the northern lumber camps and in the Mesabi Range country, the "rise of middle western metropolises," and the dramatic situations arising from the "heterogeneous racial mixtures of Wisconsin and Iowa and Minne- sota.

A number of titles of Minnesota and Northwest interest are included among unpublished doctoral dissertations in American history accepted by American universities in 1942-43, which are listed in the March num­ ber of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review. Included, for example, is Leola M. Nelson's thesis on "F. Melius Christiansen: A Study of His Life and Work as a Norwegian-American Contribution to American Culture," submitted in the University of Iowa. Listed also are Arlow W. Anderson's "The Scandinavian Immigrants and American Public Affairs, 1840 to 1872" (Northwestern), John H. Haefner's "The West as Seen through Frontier Biography" (Iowa), George H. McCune's "Extension of the Telegraph in the Northwest, 1850-1880" (Minnesota), and Horace S. Merrill's "Bourbon Democracy of the Upper Middle West, 1865-1896" '944 NEWS AND COMMENT I93 (Wisconsin). The most recent List of Doctoral Dissertations in History Now in Progress at Universities in the United States and the Dominion of Canada has just appeared as volume 3 of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1941 (Washington, 1943. 59 p.). Subjects of special significance for Minnesota and the Northwest on this list include "The Diary of Ignatius Donnelly" edited by Theodore Ny- dahl (Minnesota), "Political Irregularity in Wisconsin and Minnesota" by Roy W. Oppegard (Wisconsin), "The Progressive Movement in Min­ nesota, 1900-12" by Wilfred O. Stout, Jr. (Princeton), "The Farmer- Labor Party in Minnesota" by Renata R. Wasson (Minnesota), "History of the Minnesota Dairy Industry" by Everett E. Edwards (Harvard), "Construction and Development of Wisconsin Railroads before the Civil War" by John F. Stover (Wisconsin), and "The Frontier Doctor in the Old Northwest" by Paul M. Davis (Iowa).

An attempt to explain the presence of a "Runic Inscription on No Man's Land," an island south of Martha's Vineyard, is made by Hjalmar Rued Holand in the New England Quarterly for March. The inscription, which relates to Leif Erikson's exploits on the north Atlantic coast, was found in 1926 on a boulder on the beach of the island. During the hurri­ cane of 1938 the boulder was swept into the ocean.

The issue of the Alabama Historical Quarteily for the fall of 1943 is devoted to a reprint of Jean Penicaut's "Annals of Louisiana from 1698 to 1722." The material is drawn from B. F. French's Historical Collec­ tions of Louisiana, which is not generally accessible in Alabama. In an introductory note, the editor of the Quarterly expresses the hope that by making this narrative available in school libraries, interest in state and regional history may be aroused.

The missionary activities in Minnesota and the Northwest as well as in other parts of the United States and in Canada of such Catholic or­ ganizations as the French Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Austrian Leopoldinen-Stiftung, and the Bavarian Ludwig-Missionsverein are surveyed by Theodore Roemer in a recent volume entitled Ten Dec­ ades of Alms (St. Louis, 1942. 322 p.). Much information about Min­ nesota missionaries, like Baraga and Pierz, is included, and the story of the Minnesota dioceses is traced. Father Roemer also is the author of a history of the parish of Saint Joseph in Appleton (1943. 306 p.), which he offers as an example of the "development of the [Catholic] Church 194 NEWS AND COMMENT J""^ in the United States." The volume represents a substantial contribution to the recorded local history of eastern Wisconsin, and it might well serve as a model in the preparation of other parish histories.

In an article entitled "Bishop Baraga: Slav Sanctity in Action," ap­ pearing in the Slavonic Monthly for January, 1943, Frederick A. Orehek notes that the seventy-fifth anniversary of the death of the first bishop of Marquette occurred on January 19, 1943. Baraga's contributions both as a missionary and as a student of the Ojibway language are reviewed. Some attention is given also to his activities in encouraging immigration. A list of "Slovene clergy'' who followed Baraga across the Atlantic in­ cludes the names of two Minnesota missionaries. Fathers Francis Pierz and Joseph Buh. These men, according to the writer, were in turn "re­ sponsible for the first group of fifty immigrants that started out from Slovenia and arrived in America in 1865 to found the initial Slovene settlement in Brockway, Minnesota." The townsite of Brockway in Steams County has since been absorbed by the village of St. Stephen.

An unusual aspect of fur trade history is suggested by the title of Oscar Lewis' monograph on The Effects of White Contact upon Black- foot Culture, with Special Reference to the Role of the Fur Trade, which has been published by the American Ethnological Society (New York, 1942. 73 p.). In considering the historical backgrounds for his subject, the author deals with traders and trading posts both in the United States and in Canada. The "Effects of the Fur Trade upon the Blackfoot" cul­ ture, social customs, religion, and warfare are then described.

The Minnesota and Wisconsin backgrounds of the Reverend Philip Gordon are mentioned in a recent pamphlet entided Outline for Biogra­ phy of a Chippewa Indian Who Became a Catholic Priest (1943. 43 p.). As a boy. Father Gordon lived in Sherburne County, and among the schools he attended were St. Paul Seminary and St. John's University at CoUegeville.

A program of Swedish-American sociological research, inaugurated by Mr. Albin Widen in 1935 when he came to the United States from Sweden as a fellow of the American Scandinavian Foundation, is being continued by Mr. Widen from his Minneapolis office. He has announced that the purpose of his research "is to collect material for an exhaustive study of Swedish-America from an historical as well as a sociological point of view." He hopes to be able "to make clear what Swedish- '944 NEWS AND COMMENT I95 America really is and what the Swedish immigrants have given to Amer­ ica, not only of human material but also of cultural traditions." He has called upon Swedish-Americans generally to co-operate with him by fill­ ing out a questionnaire, which he has distributed widely.

The centennial of the Norwegian Lutheran church in America was commemorated by various church groups during the summer of 1943, when a number of publications relating to its history were issued. The "Centennial Address" presented on June 20, 1943, by the Reverend T. F. GuUixson at Muskego, Wisconsin, where the first church of this denomi­ nation was erected in 1843, was published as number i of the Centennial Commemoration Papers (11 p.). This address and numbers 2 and 3 in the same series, prepared by Joseph R. Hestenes and S. J. Fretheim, relate to the history of the little log church erected at Muskego and the leaders of the denomination. The church structure was later removed to St. Paul, where it is preserved on the campus of the Luther Theological Seminary.

Frank B. Kellogg is an important figure in John E. Stoner's recently published study of S. O. Levinson and the Pact of Paris (Chicago, 1943. 368 p.), which the author describes in his preface as a "contribution to the history of one phase of the long struggle of mankind to learn to live in peace." The many references to the Minnesota senator in the index suggest the importance of this work for a study of his career. There is every indication that the Levinson Papers in the library of the University of Chicago, on which much of the present work is based, must be rich in material relating to Kellogg. One of Dr. Stoner's objects in the present study is to explain how the "outlawry-of-war movement, which began in Levinson's mind," influenced the negotiation and ratification of the Kel­ logg Peace Pact.

A valuable contribution to American transportation history is made by Henry Ladd Smith in his volume entitled Airways: The History of Commercial Aviation in the United States (New York, 1942. 430 p.). It is perhaps the most convenient source available on Northwest aviatiop history, for in an appendix the author provides concise sketches of North­ west Airlines and of Mid-Continent Airlines, both of which operate lines into the Twin Cities. The development of the former line from a mail route between Chicago and the Twin Cities into one of the country's great passenger lines is traced in some detail. Such pioneers in aviation as Charles Dickinson and Colonel L. H. Brittin figure prominendy in the 196 NEWS AND COMMENT J"^^ Story of Northwest Airlines as recorded by Mr. Smith. The book has many useful features, including a chronology, bibliographical notes, and the texts of some of the early laws relating to air mail. In A Brief History of the Chicago and North Western Line recendy published by that railroad (1942. 19 p.), the stories of several earlier western roads that consolidated in 1864 to form the present system are reviewed. The earliest of the group, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, was chartered in 1836, according to this account. An interesting feature of the pamphlet is the illustrations, which include views of the line's early stations, pictures of early locomotives, and views of the in­ teriors of dining and parlor cars of the 1870's. Some reminiscences of "Old Railroad Days" in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states of the Northwest are contributed by Walter Flanders of Rochester to the Mark Twain Quarterly for the summer and fall of 1943. The writer's railroading career opened in 1885, when he began to work for the Northwestern road at Green Bay, Wisconsin; and it continued until an accident brought his active career to an abrupt close twenty-five years later at Rochester. Among the early jobs described is one on which the writer was required "to shutde back and forth between St. Paul and Minneapolis with cuts of cars" for the Great Northern. Those interested in river and steamboating history will find useful a glossary of "Steamboat Terms" with which Frederick Way, Jr., concludes his recent volume, Pilotin Comes Natural (New York, 1943). The nar­ rative deals largely with steamboating on the Ohio, but most of the terms defined apply to all inland waters. The Red River cart trade, the activities of the International Joint Com­ mission, the Canadian boundary, and the Lake Superior iron deposits are among the topics of Northwest and Minnesota interest mentioned in Years of This Land: A Geographical History of the United States by Hermann R. Muelder and David M. Delo (New York, 1943. 243 p.). Within such limited space, the discussion is necessarily general. The only Minnesota topic that receives more than passing comment is the dis­ covery and development of the Mesabi Range. To call attention to the "Centennial of Iron Ore Discovery in the Lake Superior District," the St. Louis County Independent is publishing a review of iron mining in the area during the past century. The first installment, which appears in the issue for February 18, opens with the '944 NEWS AND COMMENT I97 Story of the first ore discovery near Ishpeming, Michigan, on September 19, 1844. Credit for the spectacular find is given to W. A. Burt of the United States Geological Survey. Later installments deal with the exploi­ tation of the Michigan deposits, the development of transportation facili­ ties, the discovery of the Minnesota ranges, including the Mesabi in 1892, and the growth of the steel industry. In its issue for March 17 the Inde­ pendent includes a picture of a primitive furnace erected near Ishpeming in 1864, and announces its recent purchase and proposed restoration by the Inland Steel Company.

Much of Stanley F. Horn's recent volume on This Fascinating Lum­ ber Business (Indianapolis, 1943) is devoted to discussions of such topics as modern lumbering methods, the manufacture of "forest products," their distribution, lumbering techniques, and the like. He gives only slight attention to the backgrounds of the industry, particularly in the Middle West and Minnesota. In a section of less than four pages on "The Lake States," the author mentions some of Minnesota's pioneer lum­ bering families, including the Weyerhaeusers.

As a special feature of a celebration held in Baltimore on February 21 to mark its centennial, the Maryland Historical Society opened to the public a parlor and a dining room authentically restored in the style of a pretentious Maryland home of 1844. Presented on the same occasion was a program including addresses by Archibald MacLeish on "The Use of the Radio in the Presentation of History" and by Judge Samuel K. Den­ nis on the history of the society. To mark the centennial also the society arranged displays of manuscripts and objects illustrative of its history. It plans to publish during the year a handbook, now in preparation, review­ ing its history and its activities during the past century and describing its collections.

The Historical Society of Berks County, Pennsylvania, has announced that through an exchange arrangement with the American Antiquarian Society it has recently completed its file of the Reading Adler, which was published continuously from January 3, 1797, to March 22, 1913. The Pennsylvania society thus has available in its library one of the most ex­ tensive files of a German-American newspaper in existence. The Histori­ cal Review of Berks County for January includes an interesting history of the Adler by Milton W. Hamilton, who also tells how the file was acquired. 198 NEWS AND COMMENT 1'"'^ In a sketch of "Samuel Medary — Journalist and Politician, 1801- 1864," which appears in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly for January-March, Helen P. Dorn makes brief mention of her subject's service as governor of Minnesota Territory for a year before its admission as a state. He received the appointment, according to Miss Dorn, as a reward for support given to President Buchanan in the Demo­ cratic convention.

The "Proceedings of the County Board of Supervisors" of Crawford County for the period from November 29, 1821, to November 19, 1850, as transcribed by workers engaged in the Wisconsin Historical Records Survey, are presented in a bulky mimeographed volume of Wisconsin Territorial Papers: County Series (Madison, 1942. 308 p.). Until St. Croix County was organized in 1840, Crawford County embraced all of Minnesota east of the Mississippi, as well as a large part of Wisconsin. It is thus not surprising to find in the present volume scores of names that are as significant for the history of Minnesota as for that of Wisconsin. Other volumes in the same series, dealing with St. Croix and Iowa coun­ ties, are reviewed ante, 24:159, 178.

A Northwest industry that has received litde attention from historians in the past is the subject of an article on "The Development of Cran­ berry Growing in Wisconsin" by Neil E. Stevens and Jean Nash, in the Wisconsin Magazine of History for March. The story of cranberry cul­ ture is traced from the i86o's, when Edward Sacket began to improve some marshland on which he found the wild plants. In the same issue is a history of "The Typewriter in Wisconsin" by Frederic Heath, who records that the "first crude typewriter was assembled in 1867" at Mil­ waukee. He notes that the suggestion for a "machine to write letters" came from William G. Le Due, when on a visit to Milwaukee early in 1867 he saw a machine invented by Latham Sholes "to print the serial numbers on blank books.'' The inventor followed Le Due's suggestion, and "by autumn of the year 1867 the first machine had been made." Mr. Heath seems to be unaware that Le Due was a prominent Minnesotan and a resident of Hastings, for he refers to the visitor as "a General Wil­ liam G. Le Due, travehng in the West."

A note on "The Pontoon Bridge at Prairie du Chien" by John M. Lenhart appears in the section devoted to "Historical Studies and Notes" in the March number of the Social Justice Review. The designer of the bridge, Michael Spettel, later became a resident of St. Paul. '944 NEWS AND COMMENT I99 The consumer's side of the Northwest lumber industry is suggested by Roger S. Galer in some "Recollections of Busy Years" which he contrib­ utes to the Iowa Journal of History and Politics for January. In the Iowa village of Hillsboro, where Mr. Galer was born in 1863, the "residences were almost universally frame buildings,'' he recalls. They were built of lumber "hauled from Fort Madison, a thriving lumber market on the Mississippi." To supply the demand for building material in Iowa and states farther south, "logs cut in Wisconsin and Minnesota were floated down the tributary streams to the Father of Waters and thence in great rafts to the lumber depots" along the river, where "giant saw mills worked them into lumber of the sizes needed for the building of thou­ sands of homes, barns, and outbuildings throughout eastern Iowa.''

Two important statistical studies have been issued in the series on the Relations of Canada and the United States. The first, by Leon E. Truesdell of the United States bureau of the census, deals with The Canadian Born in the United States (New Haven, 1943. 263 p.) and presents an analysis of statistics relating to the Canadian element from 1850 to 1930. The importance of this nationality group in frontier Min­ nesota is suggested in the author's statement that "the maximum per­ centage Canadian born in any state in any census year . . . was 23.32 in Minnesota in 1850." He goes on, however, to explain that this figure represents "only 1,417 Canadian born in a total population of 6,077." The results of northward emigration from the United States are surveyed in the second volume. The American-Born in Canada by R. H. Coats and M. C. Maclean (Toronto, 1943. 176 p.). The historical aspects of the population movements analyzed in these volumes were the subject of an earlier contribution to the series—The Mingling of the Canadian and American Peoples by Marcus L. Hansen and J. B. Brebner.

"The Need for a Wider Study of Military History" is stressed by A. E. Prince in the March number of the Canadian Historical Review. He contends that "to win the war, and to win the peace afterwards, a sound grasp of military history is indeed essential not only for generals and statesmen but also for the peoples of the United Nations, who are asked to back up their policies." The writer expresses the conviction that "military history is hardly less valuable for the civilian than for the soldier, especially in liberal democracies." Another contribution of general interest in this issue of the Review is George W. Brown's sug­ gestive discussion of "The Problem of Public and Historical Records in JUNE 200 NEWS AND COMMENT Canada." It is offered "in the hope that it may draw attention to the serious need for constructive policy." Mr. W. S. Wallace contributes to the Review a survey of the career and some remarks in honor of Mr. Pierre-Georges Roy, who has entered upon his fiftieth year as editor of the Bulletin des recherches historiques. Of interest to students of Red River Valley and Northwest history is a document, published in this issue, relating to the Riel rebellion of 1885. It is a report prepared by W. P. R. Street, chairman of the "Commission of 1885 to the North­ west Territories," which made an enumeration of half-breeds who had resided in Manitoba since 1870 and were entitled to lands there. An explanatory introduction is provided by H. H. Langton. Among the contributions of Northwest interest in the December number of the Re­ view are a letter of 1806 giving "Selkirk's Views on British Policy to­ ward the Spanish-American Colonies," which has been edited by John Perry Pritchett; and a study in railroad history, entitled "Financing the C.P.R., 1880-5," by D. C. Masters.

Dr. Herman Bryan of Port Arthur has recendy published two leaflets in which he relates some of his personal experiences as a physician in the north country. In one he records some of his "Experiences with the Indians," with a few of the red men's traditions and legends of the Thunder Bay country; in the other he recalls frontier adventures con­ nected with his practice of "Snow-shoe Medicine."

GENERAL MINNESOTA ITEMS In order to expand and continue his record of the artist on the Main Streets of the Northwest, Dr. Laurence Schmeckebier, whose article on "Art on Main Street" appeared in the March issue of this magazine, has been granted a fellowship in regional writing by the University of Minne­ sota. It is one of twelve awards announced recently by the university committee which is administering a grant made by the Rockefeller Foundation for the encouragement of regional writing on the Northwest (see ante, 24:254, 370). Another award of special interest to students of Minnesota history made at the same time was given to Dr. Philip D. Jordan of Miami University, who is engaged in recording the story of the Hutchinson family. The Hutchinsons, who were members of a group of popular itinerant singers in the middle decades of the last cen­ tury, founded the Minnesota community that bears their name. Among '944 GENERAL MINNESOTA ITEMS 201 Others receiving awards are Thorstina Jackson Walters of New York, who will write on the Icelandic communities of the Northwest; Alma S. Scott, who is preparing a biography of Wanda Gag, the artist, for youth­ ful readers; and John Drury of Chicago, who plans to assemble pictures and stories of a hundred historic houses of the Middle West.

A "Know Your Minnesota" quiz contest will be held on August 31 under the auspices of the school exhibits department of the 1944 Minnesota State Fair. Prizes amounting to three hundred dollars are offered to the winners. This contest, which is the third held in con­ nection with the state fair, is open to pupils in the seventh and eighth grades. Each county in the state is entitled to two representatives, se­ lected in a series of school, township, and county contests. The Minne­ sota quiz is intended to intensify interest in the study of the state, its past and its present, to promote an understanding of its life as a "cross- section of mid-west American life," and to "stimulate a lasting concern, and a desire to share, in the welfare and development of Minnesota." Information about the quiz may be obtained from Miss Anne Brezler, superintendent of school exhibits for the fair.

Material relating to the history of Minnesota counties and localities is being utilized by Dr. J. O. Christianson, superintendent of the Uni­ versity of Minnesota school of agriculture, in a radio program entided 'The Friendly Road," which he broadcasts over station WLB at 1:00 P.M. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Dr. Christianson is featur­ ing stories drawn fromxurrent numbers and back files of the Minnesota Historical News, a monthly clip sheet for newspapers published by the Minnesota Historical Society.

An important branch of the Minnesota state government is the sub­ ject of a manuscript "History of the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission" by Martin W. Odland (57 p.). He covers the story of the department from its establishment in 1871 as a "one-man commission" to 1944, concluding with a summary of its present duties and activities. Included in the narrative is a section on the "E^rly History of Minne­ sota Grain Inspection" and an account of the expansion of the functions of the railroad commission, under a law of 1885, to include the "super­ vision of all warehouses and of the grain trade." It is regrettable that Mr. Odland's study is available only in typewritten form; the depart­ ment with which it deals might well undertake its publication. JUNE 202 NEWS AND COMMENT "The Failure of the Farmer-Labor Party to Capture Control of the Minnesota Legislature" in the 1930's is discussed by Arthur Naftalin in the February number of the American Political Science Review. The author undertakes to explain why the party was "unable to control the legislature at a time when the state, by positive pluralities and majori­ ties, was electing and re-electing Farmer-Laborites to state administrative offices," for, he asserts, "the party's breakdown is related in significant measure to its unhappy legislative experience." Among the reasons of­ fered for the fact that the Farmer-Labor party controlled the lower house only in 1933 and 1937 and that it never gained control of the senate are the "non-staggered senatorial election term" and the nonpartisan elec­ tion of legislators in Minnesota. "How Minnesota Soldiers Voted in the Civil War" is briefly ex­ plained by Charles B. Cheney in the Minneapolis Tribune for February 20. The writer relates that a special session of the Minnesota legislature was called in the fall of 1862 "mainly to provide votes for soldiers." The machinery set up under a law passed during the session, which provided for commissioners who would distribute ballots among sol­ diers in the field, who in turn would mail the ballots to their local elec­ tion judges, is explained.

Marjorie Fryckberg is the author of a feature article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for February 13 in which she reminds her readers that pre­ vious to the Civil War "Slaves Were Held in Minnesota'' and that among those held in bondage within the borders of the state was the famous Dred Scott. The story of his sojourn at Fort Snelling in the 1830's with his master. Dr. John Emerson — an incident which resulted in an epoch-making legal case two decades later — is briefly recounted. Among Minnesota slaveholders mentioned are Major Lawrence Talia­ ferro, Alexis Bailly, John Culbertson, and Sylvanus B. Lowry. Miss Fryckberg includes in her narrative the story of Lowry's antagonism for Jane Grey Swisshelm.

"Historical Clay Pipes of the Minnesota Area" are the subject of an in­ teresting article by Richard R. Sackett in the Minnesota Archaeologist for July, 1943. These pipes, which were manufactured both abroad and in Canada and were used by the voyageurs and as trade goods in the fur trade, "have been found in every historic site excavated in Minne­ sota," according to Mr. Sackett. Among the examples described and '944 GENERAL MINNESOTA ITEMS 2O3 illustrated are several pipes of interesting design unearthed on the site of old Fort Ridgely.

Attention is called to some university anniversaries in the Minnesota Alumnus for February, which announces that "February is University Anniversary Month." The reader is reminded that the territorial legisla­ ture made the first provision for the establishment of the university on February 25, 1851, and that a plan for its reorganization was adopted on February 18, 1868. The beginnings of the law school and the school of dentistry, both of which "passed their fifty-fifth birthdays during the war year of 1943," also are recalled.

The ninetieth anniversary of the founding of Hamline University is the occasion for the publication of a brief survey of its history in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for March 19. The school received a territorial charter on March 3, 1854, and it opened at Red Wing in the fall of the same year. Its beginning and its plans for the future receive some atten­ tion in a university publication. Campus Talk, ^"'^ March.

Brief descriptive statements about Minnesota State Parks, Memorials, Recreational Reserves, Waysides and Monuments are presented in a booklet recently published by the Minnesota department of conservation (St. Paul, 1944). Information is given about the location, attractions, facilities, and historic background of each park and other area, includ­ ing the date of its acquisition by the state.

The historical backgrounds of the Itasca area are briefly outlined by Gustav Swanson in an article on "Summer Birds of Itasca Park" pub­ lished in the Flicker for October, 1943. Dr. Swanson also is the author of an article on the "Wildlife of Itasca Park" appearing in the Decem­ ber issue of the same magazine. Accompanying his discussions are lists of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians observed in the park in recent years.

Portraits and brief sketches of three of Minnesota's pioneer journal­ ists— Daniel Sinclair, Eric Norelius, and Joseph A. Wheelock — appear res{>ectively in the January, February, and March issues of the Minnesota Journal of Education. They supplement Dr. Lewis Beeson's survey of "Pioneer Minnesota Journalism," which appeared in the same periodical for September. 204 NEWS AND COMMENT 1""^ A "Biographical Sketch" of the late Edward C. Gale, prepared by Bergmann Richards and presented before the district court for Henne­ pin County on February 19, has been published as a pamphlet (22 p.). Mention is made of Gale's historical pilgrimages, including one from Kenora to Fort Frances in 1891. In describing it, Mr. Richards quotes at some length from Gale's descriptive account of the voyage, which is reprinted from a contemporary periodical in the issue of this magazine for December, 1943. Among the prominent Minnesota families recendy sketched for Northwest Life by Evelyn Burke are the Griggs and Buder families, both of St. Paul. Her account of the family of Colonel Chauncey W. Griggs, who led the Third Minnesota in the Civil War and later estab­ lished the firm of Griggs, Cooper and Company in St. Paul, appears in the January number. Accompanying genealogical charts reveal the names of his descendants. A group picture of the Butler family, which includes Justice Pierce Butler, and genealogical charts appear with the account of this family in the March issue. This sketch contains also some mate­ rial on the origin and growth of the firm of Buder Brothers, with a list of some of the important building projects that it has handled.

WAR HISTORY ACTIVITIES "To serve as a clearing house of information among persons and or­ ganizations throughout the nation engaged in the collection and preser­ vation of World War II materials," the American Association for State and Local History has begun the publication of a mimeographed circu­ lar entitled the War Records Collector. The first number, which was is­ sued in March, contains a list of "War Records Projects and Activities in the States and Territories," with the names and addresses of individ­ uals and institutions engaged in war records work. The editor of the Collector is Dr. Lester J. Cappon of the University of Virginia; among those serving with him on the association's committee on state and local war records is Dr. Lewis Beeson, acting superintendent of the Minne­ sota Historical Society. For the promotion of war records work in the various states, the committee has received a grant from the Social Science Research Council. Dr. Cappon's activities on behalf of war records col­ lecting are exemplified also in number 8 of the Bulletins of the Ameri­ can Association for State and Local History, in which he presents a 1944 WAR HISTORY ACTIVITIES 205 general survey of War Records Projects in the States, 1941-1943 (p. 189- 226). Not only does Dr. Cappon tell how such projects were organized in a number of states, including Minnesota, but he discusses the prob­ lems of selection, financing, and administration that they have had to meet, and he describes in some detail the "Types of War Records" that may be collected. The publication of war histories also receives some attention, with notes on material that has been published and on plans for the future.

The historical service board of the American Historical Association, of which Dr. Theodore C. Blegen is director, is preparing a series of pamphlets "on a wide variety of significant current questions in such fields as America's allies, international and national affairs, and commu­ nity and personal problems," according to the American Historical Re­ view for January. The board's publications are expected to supply "educational materials to the Army for use in soldiers' volunteer discus­ sion groups." They will deal with questions "derived from men in the ranks through samplings conducted by the War Department in this country and overseas."

The War Records Commission of the Wisconsin State Council of Defense has issued a useful War Records Manual designed to aid those engaged in county war records work (1943. 16 p.). It contains sugges­ tions for "setting up a county war records committee," for compiling service rosters and clipping files, for making an inventory of war and defense records that cannot be collected because they are in use, and for collecting material. Types of records that should be collected are listed in the appendix. Forms to be used in making inventories and collecting other kinds of information are a useful feature of the Manual.

Suggestions for the collecting of material relating to community par­ ticipation in the war are provided in a pamphlet entitled Our Commu­ nity at War (Harrisburg, 1944. 8 p.), which has been published by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission. Some instructions for the writing of contemporary war history also are included. The booklet is intended for use in the schools.

A copy of a multigraphed "History of the Minnesota National Guard," prepared by the Minnesota adjutant general's office in 1940 (20 p.), has been added to the Minnesota Historical Society's collections. 206 NEWS AND COMMENT I""^ It provides a concise record of the state's defense units from 1858, when the Minnesota Volunteer Militia was organized. Both federal and state laws affecting the organization, which became the Minnesota National Guard in the early i88o's, are mentioned.

Representatives of sixteen local Minnesota defense councils attended the third community service institute held under the auspices of the Minnesota Division of CiviUan Defense. Earlier institutes took place at Owatonna and Rochester; the present one was held at the University of Minnesota on February 10. Participating in the program were represent­ atives of such federal agencies as the War Manpower Commission, the Food Distribution Administration, the Office of Price Administration, and the War Production Board, and of several state departments.

Two St. Paul business concerns have recendy added to the collections of the War History Committee files of publications issued for former employees in the armed services. They are Home Port, published by Griggs, Cooper and Company, and Sparks, issued by the Allied Build­ ing Credits, Inc. Both publications appear in multigraphed form, and both give space to soldiers' letters and local news items.

A scrapbook prepared by pupils in the William Penn School of Min­ neapolis to illustrate their activities in a "Schools at War" program has been received by the War History Committee through the courtesy of Mrs. Marie Hedges, a teacher in the school and its war stamp chairman.

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES The location of the museum of the Winona County Historical So­ ciety in the practice school of the Winona State Teachers College is a challenge to the organization to co-operate with the schools of the city and of southeastern Minnesota in general. The Winona society was or­ ganized as recendy as 1935, and its museum is a development of the present decade. In addition to the historical society, this local museum counts among its sponsors the teachers' college, the college alumni asso­ ciation, the county old setders' association, and the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Miss Mabel Marvin is chairman of the museum committee. The society's collections are displayed in about a dozen eases in a large room on the second floor of the practice school. Most of the exhibits '944 LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 207 are of an extremely miscellaneous nature, but careful examination re­ veals that they reflect definite trends in the history of the city and the locality. The material is at hand, for example, for an excellent school exhibit. It could be built about the architect's drawings of the structure erected at Winona in 1866 for Minnesota's first state normal school. Sev­ eral early textbooks, including an 1814 edition of Morse's Geography Made Easy, would doubdess attract considerable attention if they were placed together and properly labeled. A number of manuscript volumes in the Winona museum indicate that German immigrants played an important role in the pioneer history of the community. Minutes of meetings of the Rescue Hook and Ladder Company for the years from 1857 to 1865 are recorded both in German and in English. The cultural contribution of this nationality group is reflected in two sets of records. The activities of the Winona Gesang Verein from 1863 to 1870 are described in two volumes. Another Ger­ man musical organization that probably grew out of the earlier society is the Philharmonische Verein; a volume of its records for the period from 1871 to 1883 is preserved in the museum. Other records in the collection tell of the process of settlement. Such, for example, is a little printed pamphlet, containing the constitution and bylaws of the Western Farm and Village Association, which founded the Rollingstone colony near Winona in the early 1850's. The first issue of the association's newspaper, the Western Farm and Village Advocate, published on January i, 1852, is on display. An illustration shows a plan for the proposed village, built about a central square after the manner of New England villages. Of unusual interest and value is a copy of the field notes of the first survey of Winona Township, made in 1862; they have been transcribed from the original record in the office of the sur­ veyor general at Dubuque, Iowa. The Winona museum, like most of the local historical museums, has a collection of pictures and a large number of pioneer objects — furni­ ture, spinning wheels, household utensils, agricultural implements, lamps and other lighting equipment, and the like. All objects are labeled, but unfortunately the information given on the cards does not explain the significance of the exhibits. It gives, rather, a mass of detail about do­ nors and time of acquisition that should be recorded only in a catalogue for the use of the curator. If properly developed, the Winona museum can become a center of, interest for both pupils and teachers. It can well be used to supplement 208 NEWS AND COMMENT 1'^'"^ and illustrate daily lessons in American history, as well as to acquaint the youth of Winona County with the story of their own local back­ ground. B.L.H.

Regular meetings of the Becker County Historical Society were held at Detroit Lakes on February i and March 7. On the latter occasion the society held open house in its museum in the courthouse. A recent addi­ tion to the "household department" of its museum is a large spinning wheel, presented by Mrs. Ed Turnblad, according to the Lake Park Journal of February 10. The Carver County Historical Society makes an appeal for pictures of pioneers and of local men and women who are serving with the armed forces in a recently issued four-page leaflet descriptive of its ac­ tivities.

A pioneer lawyer of Montevideo, Mr. J. O. Haugland, presented a reminiscent talk at a meeting of the Chippewa County Historical So­ ciety on February 4, describing a childhood journey into the region with his parents and a group of land seekers. A feature of the meeting was a presentation by Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Kief of a group of Spanish-American War articles that belonged to the late William Olander. The collection, which will be displayed in the society's museum, is the subject of a brief article in the Milan Standard for January 20.

A native Minneapolitan, Mr. Edward M. Conant, was the speaker at a meeting of the Hennepin County Historical Society held in Minne­ apolis on January 11. He presented some "Recollections of E^rly Min­ neapolis," recalling especially some social and cultural aspects of life in the 1870's. Eleven directors of the society were elected, including Miss Louise BurweU, who replaces the late Edward C. Gale. The January issue of the society's quarterly, Hennepin County History, includes sev­ eral tributes to Mr. Gale and an account of his pilgrimage to the birth­ place of Father Hennepin. At a joint meeting of representatives of the society and the Hennepin County Territorial Pioneer Association, held on March 15, the association's collections in the Godfrey House were turned over to the society, with the understanding that the latter organi­ zation would continue to display them there.

Mr. G. M. Dwelle was elected to the presidency of the Lake Pepin Valley Historical Society at its annual meeting, which was held in Lake 1944 LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 209 City on February 8. He succeeds the late R. C. Bardett. Other officers chosen at the same time are Mr. F. H. Kemp, vice-president, and Mr. Harley K. Reko, secretary and treasurer.

The museum of the Nicollet County Historical Society was formally opened to the public on the afternoon of March 11, when a large num­ ber of people viewed the exhibits and enjoyed the refreshments served for the occasion. Permanent quarters for the museum have been obtained in the Kronsbruck Building in St. Peter. The annual meeting of the so­ ciety, held in the evening, was marked by the election of officers. Mr. Henry N. Benson is president. Dr. G. Edward Larson, vice-president, and Miss Hattie I. Johnson, secretary and treasurer.

The second number of the Bulletin of the Nobles County Historical Society (see ante, p. 98), issued in January, is devoted largely to the or­ ganization's museum, its recent acquisitions and its needs. Among the accessions described are some railroad records that were turned over to the society when a freight depot at Worthington was rebuilt. Objects that the society wishes to acquire for its museum include an early auto­ mobile, examples of pioneer agriculture implements and tools, a spin­ ning wheel, clocks, pictures, and the like. Any article that reflects "something of the past" will be welcomed by the society, according to its Bulletin. The society is planning to incorporate in order that it may leg­ ally receive bequests of money and property, according to an announce­ ment in the Worthington Daily Globe for February 7.

All officers of the Polk County Historical Society, including its presi­ dent, Dr. Paul Hagen, were re-elected at its annual meeting, which was held at Crookston on January 9. Plans for a building to be erected after the war were discussed.

For the support of the Pope County Historical Society and the for­ warding of its work, the county commissioners of Pope County appro­ priated nearly a thousand dollars at their January meeting. Miss Olive Barsness, executive secretary of the society, has assembled photographs of nearly five hundred local men and women in the armed services, and she has recorded sketches of almost a hundred more.

The Sibley County Historical Society has received an appropriation of five hundred dollars from the board of county commissioners for JUNE 210 NEWS AND COMMENT 1944. The officers of the organization are August Poehler, president, Arthur L. Sander, vice-president, C. H. Stelter, treasurer, and Einar A. Rogstad, secretary. A building to be erected as a postwar project for the use of the Wa­ seca County Historical Society, the county library, and the local war veterans' organization was proposed by H. A. Panzram, secretary of the historical society, at its annual meeting, which was held at Waseca on January 3. To consider the proposal and work out a program, a com­ mittee consisting of Mr. Panzram, Mr. J. P. Coughlin, and Mr. D. C. Brown was named. Officers elected for the coming year include Mrs. F. T. Day, president, Mr. R. T. Barry, vice-president, Mr. Panzram, sec­ retary, and Mr. Arthur Brisbane, treasurer. In the Waseca Herald for March 9, the society issues an appeal for manuscripts and objects of his­ torical value.

The career of Louis Hospes, a pioneer Stillwater banker, was re­ viewed by his granddaughter, Mrs. Karl G. Neumeier, before a meeting of the Washington County Historical Society at Stillwater on January 24. Life in the logging camps and rafting on the St. Croix and the Mis­ sissippi were recalled by Mr. John McGillin, and Mr. E. L. Roney read extracts from an unpublished history of the Forstall family, some of whose members lived in Stillwater in the 1850's. E^rly Washington County roads and frontier methods of transportation were the themes of the program presented before the society on February 25, with Miss Emma Glaser and Mr. George Kutz as the speakers. A talk on the geol­ ogy of the St. Croix Valley, by Professor Paul W. Stor of Concordia College, was the feature of a third program presented at Stillwater on March 31.

LOCAL HISTORY ITEMS In commemoration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Bemidji State Teachers College devotes the February number of its Bulletin to a pic­ torial record of its activities. It includes a few charts and outlines to sug­ gest the development of the school.

The Reverend Charles E. McColley continues to contribute accounts of pioneer life in southern Minnesota and bits of frontier history to sev­ eral newspapers of the area (see ante, p. 99). In the Blue Earth County Enteiprise of Mapleton for February 3 and 17 he recounts some of the early history of the community, including the story of its founding by a '944 LOCAL HISTORY ITEMS 211 settlement association in 1856. Other sketches in this series tell of the founding of the Baptist church at Mapleton in 1866, March 9; the ex­ periences of Fred C. E. Miller, a German pioneer who settled at Maple­ ton in i860, March 23; and some activities of the writer's mother while engaged as "Delavan's First Teacher," March 30. In the sketch published on January 27, Mr. McColley quotes some litde-known ballads of the westward movement. Several of the articles published recently in his column in the Winnebago City Enterprise deal with the writer's own recollections of frontier life — the wild berries and fruits that he and his brothers and sisters gathered in the Minnesota woods, the good times coimected with "Hauling Wood from the 'Big Woods,'" the simple remedies used by his mother when she cared for members of her own and her neighbors' families who were ill (January 13, February 3, March 16). The beginnings of two Blue Earth County villages, Shelbyville and Amboy, are the subjects of sketches published on March 9 and 23. The latter articles appear also in the Amboy Herald for March 10 and 17.

"A trail blazer for the lumbering industry" is the descriptive term applied to Daniel Cameron, a Cloquet pioneer of the 1870's, whose tim­ ber cruising experiences in the north woods are the subject of an illus­ trated feature article by Alice K. Riley in the magazine section of the Duluth News-Tribune for February 20. Mr. Cameron visited the Clo­ quet area for the first time in 1873, and four years later he returned to explore and estimate timber stands. Log jams and log drives, travel by canoe and on snowshoes, surveys in areas where iron deposits inter­ fered with the working of the instruments, and forest fires are among the subjects of Mr. Cameron's recollections. Some excellent lumber camp views accompany the article.

The fiftieth anniversary of the First National Bank of Farmington, which was marked with appropriate ceremonies on January 29, is the occasion for the publication of a brief history of the institution in the Dakota County Tribune for January 28. In addition to holding open house for its friends, the bank published a souvenir booklet reviewing its history. The text was prepared by C. E. Cadwell, vice-president of the bank.

Under the title "The Last Chronicle of Fourth Street," the Minne- tonka Record of Excelsior has been publishing installments of A. J. Rus­ sell's recollections of Minneapolis' newspaper row since February 17. JUNE 212 NEWS AND COMMENT The narrative opens with the "Fourth street of 1885," and it continues with numerous anecdotes about the city's early journalists and other per­ sonalities. A brief history of the Red Rock camp meeting of the Methodist church is included in the program of its seventy-fifth annual session, which was held at Medicine Lake from June 28 to July 11, 1943. The sketch recalls the work of such pioneer missionaries as Alfred Brunson, David King, and B. T. Kavanaugh.

Some incidents in the early history of the Polk County village of Fosston are recorded by Esten Moen in a booklet entitled Fosston, Min­ nesota: A Story of the Old Town (1944. 20 p.). The author relates that the village developed about a settlement originally known as Rosebud, which had its origin in 1876. Apparendy the booklet is composed of sketches that appeared originally in a local newspaper and that have been assembled for reprinting.

Somewhat neglected by historians has been the story of the develop­ ment of welfare organizations in the Northwest. Particularly welcome, therefore, is a pamphlet dealing with the History of Family Service of Saint Paul during five decades (1944. 52 p.). The narrative, which probably is the work of Alice C. Brill, who signs the foreword, traces the story from 1892, when the Associated Charities of St. Paul was or­ ganized, through the era of the United Charities, beginning in 1914, to the establishment of the Family Service in 1935. This interesting and informing contribution to local history will be reviewed in a later issue of this magazine.

"On the completion of 90 years of banking in Saint Paul," the First National Bank of that city published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for January 12 an advertisement outlining its history. The bank traces its origin to 1853, when "Parker Paine of Anson, Maine, arrived in the frontier town of Saint Paul by steamboat and opened his private bank which as a pioneer institution gave equal consideration to gold, silver, paper currency and furs as mediums of exchange.''

St. Paul's "Real Estate History" is exploited in a series of brief sketches appearing in the Sunday issues of the St. Paul Pioneer Press from January 2 to February 27. The articles, which were prepared by '944 LOCAL HISTORY ITEMS 213 the St. Paul real estate board, deal with such topics as the land boom of the 1850's and the financial panic of 1857, the depression of 1873, the increase in land values of the i88o's, and the organization in 1892 of the St. Paul Real Estate Exchange.

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Christ Lutheran Church of St. Paul, which was marked in October, 1943, is commemorated in an illus­ trated booklet that includes a review of its history (32 p.). This pioneer Norwegian Lutheran congregation began its activities in St. Paul in February, 1868. The first installment of Ole O. Enestvedt's "Historical Sketch" of the Renville County township and village of Sacred Heart appears in the Sacred Heart News for January 27. The narrative opens with an ex­ planation of the origin of the name and an account of the first settler, Joseph R. Brown, who built a pretentious house in the township just before the Sioux Outbreak. Pioneers who found permanent homes in the locality after the Indian war, the founding of the village, early busi­ ness concerns, the influx of Scandinavian setders, the celebration in 1928 of the community's fiftieth anniversary, and the careers of some promi­ nent citizens are among the topics touched upon in later installments. Another contribution to local historical lore that has been appearing in the News is a series of "Reminiscences of Early Days in Hawk Creek" by John H. Sagnes. In the opening installment, which appears in the issue for March 16, he recalls the spring flood of 1873.

"Razzle-dazzle Village" is the arresting title used by Nathan Cohen for an article about the Mesabi Range metropolis of Hibbing in the American Mercury for March. Although Hibbing "mines and ships enough iron ore each year to build a two-ocean navy for each of our Allies," writes Mr. Cohen, "it is everything a mining town is not sup­ posed to be." The many surprises in the form of schools, hotels, public utilities, and recreational facilities that await the visitor to Minnesota's iron ore capital are enumerated by the writer. He tells also of the re­ moval of the village to a new site after rich ore deposits were discovered on the original location.

An address on "Early Methodism in Minnesota" was a feature of a program presented at Jordan on October 24, 1943, to mark the eighty- fifth anniversary of the Jordan Methodist Church. A historical sketch of 214 NEWS AND COMMENT J""^ the church, from the first sermon preached by a circuit rider of 1855, is presented in an illustrated booklet issued in connection with the anniver­ sary celebration (15 p.). The founding on February 27, 1864, of the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives is recalled and its later history is briefly outlined in an article by R. E. Hodgson appearing in the Waseca Herald for January 20. The organization, which is still active, held its eighty-first annual meeting at Waseca on February 12. Copyright of Minnesota History is the property of the Minnesota Historical Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles, however, for individual use.

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